Any Other Way
by daynaa
Summary: There was a delicate balance, in the game that they played. EricCalleigh, Christmas.


A/N: Merry Christmas everyone! I have decided that I should write a Christmas Fanfiction! Hah. Eric Calleigh, duh! It will not be another monstrosity like Christmas with Calleigh hah but you should totally go read that one too:P!

Also, my sister got Dance Dance Revolution for Christmas and she is jumping on the mats with extreme force. It is driving me INSANE.

Because I'm having a terrible time thinking of ideas right now, my friend Rachael gave me some elements to include: Spatula, esophagus, tripod, elephant, orange, solar eclipse, swing dance, drinks at a bar.

--&

Eric pushed his grocery cart slowly through the aisles. Slowly was an understatement. The only thing worse than downtown Miami at rush hour had to be this. Why he forgot to check his list of ingredients before Christmas Eve was unknown to him. By the time, or at the rate he was moving, _if _he got out of here before Christmas, he might as well just _buy _the cheesecake he was supposed to be baking. But he sighed, and continued pushing his way through the aisles, convinced that if he were a caterpillar, he'd probably have a better chance of getting the sugar and getting out of the store within a reasonable time limit. As he attempted to navigate throughout the maze of carts separating him from his goal, the sugar aisle, memories of the Christmas began to haunt him. Two days before Christmas, realizing he'd forgotten his sister had given birth to _another _baby just a few months before then, he had found himself in a toy store searching for something to buy a six month old baby. They couldn't even unwrap presents anyways; it hardly seemed worth the trouble. But nonetheless, off he went in search of the perfect present and to this day he still had nightmares of grandmothers fighting over toys and bullying their way to the front of checkout lines. This year, he noted, would be no different except the nightmares would now feature housewives with spatulas. _Wonderful._

"Excuse me!" Eric continued pushing his cart. He had heard the high pitched voice, but not seeing anyone, figured he was becoming delusional. When _was _the last time he'd eaten? "Excuse me!" He heard it again. Looking behind him, he saw a girl, no more than seven years old, standing, hands on hips, looking up at him impatiently.

"Can I help you?" He smiled at the girl who produced an apple from behind her back, smiling sweetly at Eric. "What have you got there? Are you lost?" Eric bent down to the child's level.

"Nope." She shook her head.

"Jennifer, what have I told you about talking to strangers? I'm sorry, was she bothering you?" A brunette scooped the girl up into her arms. A _pretty_ brunette, Eric noted.

"She wasn't bothering me at all, I thought she might be lost. With so many people, it'd be easy for her to wander off." Eric smiled.

"Well, thanks for talking to her." The woman smiled. "We'd better get going, lots of shopping to do."

"Merry Christmas!" Jennifer smiled toothily at him before being carried away by her Mother. Eric, still entranced by the brunette and thinking that maybe the grocery store wasn't all that bad, began pushing his cart. Caught up in his thoughts, he didn't notice that he was headed straight for an old woman.

"Sir, watch where you're going!" He heard, before looking up and swerving his cart to the left to avoid crashing into the woman's electronic scooter. Knocking over a display of oranges, Eric decided he'd had enough. There were too many people and he was far too impatient to wait in the inevitably long line that would be at the checkout. After helping a disgruntled employee to clean up the mess he had made with his cart and the oranges, he abandoned his cart and left the store. Driving away in his car, thinking of how he would explain to his mother the reason why he didn't bring the cheesecake he promised to bring to Christmas the next day, he was struck with an idea. Pulling out his cell phone and dialling a familiar number, he put the plan into action.

"Hey Calleigh, I've got a favour to ask you..."

--&

He had barley knocked on the door before Calleigh was ushering him inside and onto her couch.

"Eric are you okay?" She asked, a concerned look etched across her features.

"Cal, I'm fine." He reassured her.

"Are you sure? You sounded so... urgent on the phone." Calleigh was not convinced.

"I'm great Cal, really, it's just well, as I said, I have a favour to ask you." Eric explained.

"What is it?" Calleigh asked.

"Cheesecake." Eric blurted out.

"Did you have a craving?" Calleigh giggled.

"No I need to bake one. I mean, I was supposed to bake one for tomorrow but I didn't have any sugar or any filling and I went to the grocery store but I got distracted by a little girl and then I knocked over a display of oranges swerving to avoid crashing into an old woman..." Eric rambled.

"Eric!" Calleigh laughed, effectively cutting him off, "Slow down. First of all, I'm glad you survived the grocery store,"

"Barley." Eric pouted.

"And secondly, yes."

"You'll lend me some sugar?" He smiled.

"If you say please, you can even stay here and bake it." Calleigh offered.

"Please!" Eric exclaimed with childlike vigour, making Calleigh giggle again, extending her hand which he accepted, and leading him into the kitchen.

"You're just lucky I keep my kitchen fully equipped around Christmas." Calleigh told him as she gathered the ingredients to make a cheesecake.

"Lucky _and _grateful." Eric nodded.

"What more could I ask for in a man?" Calleigh joked as they got to work.

And that was how they found themselves, an hour and a half later, exhausted and covered in flour, collapsed on Calleigh's couch.

"Who knew baking a cheesecake was so exhausting?" Eric sighed, reaching for the television remote.

"Well Eric, usually baking does not involve you chasing me around the kitchen attempting to tickle me." Calleigh rolled her eyes.

"That was _revenge!_" Eric protested, defending himself. "You're the one who started it by assaulting me with flour."

"You enjoyed it." Calleigh stuck her tongue out at him.

"But it was assault, nonetheless." Eric laughed, flipping through the channels. "How many channels do you get here Calleigh? Six hundred?"

"I have trouble sleeping most nights, so I wanted to have a variety of shows to watch on TV." Calleigh shrugged.

"Including a channel that runs animal biographies twenty four seven?" Eric teased. "All you ever needed to know about an elephant..." Calleigh grabbed the remote and changed the channel.

"The cheesecake won't be ready till later tonight; you might as well stay till then." Calleigh suggested.

"Alright," Eric agreed, "And by the way, if I haven't already said so, thanks for letting me use your kitchen, and your supplies and such. I really appreciate it."

"Eric, it was no problem, for the hundredth time." Calleigh smiled. "Really, I had absolutely nothing to do today, and I had fun."

"No exciting Christmas plans?" Eric asked. They'd been busy at the lab lately, and Calleigh and Jake's recently ended relationship had put a strain on things between Eric and Calleigh for the past few weeks.

"More like no Christmas plans in general." Calleigh shrugged. "I mean, Jake and I had planned to spend Christmas together but then that ended, and I didn't feel like going and spending Christmas with my parents in Louisiana, so I figured I'd just stay home. Horatio made me promise not to come into the lab, but I was planning on going in anyways."

"Cal, you can't go to work on Christmas!" Eric protested. "That's depressing. Come spend Christmas with me! Remember that year when you almost missed your flight to Louisiana? My parents invited you to Christmas then, the offer is still open! It'll be fun!"

"Oh Eric, I couldn't impose like that." Calleigh shook her head.

"Calleigh, there'll be like, two hundred people there. Seriously, you won't be imposing." Eric laughed. "Besides, who could resist my Mother's cooking?"

"Fine." Calleigh relented. "I'll come." Eric smiled victoriously at her. "But now you're not getting your Christmas present till then." She teased.

"Oh, come on! Can't I have it now? Please?" Eric pouted, but to no avail. Calleigh just giggled at him and turned her attention back to the old movie she'd turned on TV. Eric settled for watching it as well. He was glad that it had been Calleigh to bring up their annual exchanging of gifts. They'd always done it, but things had been _different _this year. It wasn't long before the pair had drifted off to sleep.

The next morning was a blur for Calleigh. She woke up pressed into her couch, a heavy weight resting on top of her. "Deep breaths." She murmured to herself, but the sound was mostly muffled into the weight on top of her. Her mantra of don't panic, and stay calm was thrown into the wind as she wiggled her way up so that she could at least breathe.

"Eric!" She hissed, immediately feeling the man who'd ended up sleeping on top of her, wake up. "You're crushing my esophagus!"

"Sorry Cal. I'll just move over." Quickly realizing the words leaving his mouth and the implication they had while waking up first thing in the, what he assumed to be, morning, he jumped off the couch.

"I think we fell asleep." Calleigh laughed softly, stretching out the muscles that had become cramped as a result of sleeping on the couch. "What time do we have to be at your parents?"

"We have an hour and a half." Eric sighed, relaxing again as he caught sight of the clock on the wall.

"How about I shower and change and meet you at hour apartment in an hour?" Calleigh suggested.

"See you then!" Eric nodded. "And Merry Christmas!"

"You too!" Calleigh called as she headed into the bathroom.

--&

It was almost exactly an hour later when Calleigh arrived, made up and free of flour, with their cheesecake in one hand and her present for Eric in the other.

"Hey!" She smiled as Eric opened the door.

"Long time no see," Eric joked. "You look fantastic Cal, very Christmassy!" He complimented her. And it was true. She looked beautiful, her hair in delicate curls and her casual red cocktail dress eluding Christmas spirit.

"You don't look so bad yourself. The sweater is almost too manly." Calleigh teased him.

"Hey, my niece gave me this sweater last year. She'd be heartbroken if I didn't wear it. So please, don't mock the moose." Eric laughed.

"You're such a good uncle, Eric." Calleigh told him seriously as she set her things down on the table in his entrance way. She couldn't help thinking that he'd make a great father someday too.

"I try. I mean, I know this year especially will be hard on everyone." The unspoken significance of the first Christmas without Marisol was not lost on Calleigh who gently took his hand.

"It must be hard..." She trailed off, at a loss for appropriate words.

"I tried to convince Horatio to come, but he was spending Christmas with Yelina and Ray." Eric sighed. "It's probably for the better. I mean, him being there would only be a reminder..."

"Yeah." Calleigh nodded. They settled into a complacent silence for a few moments before Calleigh reached for the neatly wrapped present she had brought to give to Eric. "For you," She smiled, handing it to him.

"Let me go grab yours," He smiled, letting go of her hand to walk across the apartment to the small, but beautifully decorated tree he had set up there. Selecting a prettily packaged box he sat back down, handing it to Calleigh.

"I didn't know if you wanted to exchange them at your parents place..." Calleigh shrugged.

"I think here will be better." Eric smiled as he began to tear the wrapping paper off of the gift, Calleigh following suit, albeit moving at a slower pace than Eric in attempts to not destroy the packaging.

"Eric, they're beautiful." Understatement of the year. The delicate string of pearls was breathtaking. They made her think of a necklace her mother used to wear when Calleigh was small, before things got bad.

"I'm glad you like them." Eric whispered. He gently took the necklace from her grasp, and reached around her neck. Carefully pushing her curls out of the way, he fastened the pearls around her neck. "Perfect," he whispered, the contrast of the pearl's white colour on Calleigh's smooth alabaster skin creating the perfect contrast in his mind. Not being able to resist, with his focus fixated on her perfect skin and her curls so continently pushed out of the way he placed a gentle kiss to the back of her neck. Gasping in surprise at the contact, Calleigh spun in his arms to face him.

"Eric..." There was a delicate balance, in the game that they played. This was going to tilt the balance by a long shot.

"I'm sorry," He looked almost scared. "I didn't mean to..." She was overcome by _something_. Whether it was the vulnerable look in his eyes, the way he apologized when she could see he wasn't apologetic, or maybe the fact that if he'd taken the time to fully unwrap his present he would have notice that she'd done the package up with a spring of mistletoe and it seemed as if she'd planned the whole thing. Either way, she kissed him. Adding spark to a fire, shooting off the starting block, it wasn't the time to be thinking of metaphors while they were feeling things they'd told themselves they were forbidden to feel. Lips against lips and hands against skin, Eric quickly decided he'd found a new, more perfect contrast. Despite Calleigh's rushing to be on time to Eric's, they were late for family Christmas.

--&

"Look who finally showed up!" Eric's sister Emilee exclaimed.

"Eric!" The greeting rippled through the mass of people who were crammed into the Delko's living room. Eric waved hello to the group in general before leading Calleigh into the kitchen.

"Eric where have you been! I certainly hope you weren't out buying a..." Eric's mother called from the kitchen before he and Calleigh came into view. "A cheesecake. But I see you managed to bake it this year. And it even looks edible. You must have had something to do with this Calleigh, mio querido."

"We baked it yesterday." Calleigh smiled. She loved how she could show up uninvited to the Delko family Christmas celebration and Eric's mother wouldn't question it, but would make jokes about their cheesecake.

"I bet you did." Emilee smiled, looking between the two of them. "You both look good."

"We are good. We're great." Eric replied.

"Great and looking _awfully_ like a couple tonight." Isabella, the youngest of Eric's older sisters added.

"So there's supposed to be a solar eclipse tonight!" Eric changed the topic, a rather sly move on his part, if he did say so himself.

"Uncle Eric," A tiny tug on his sleeve alerted him to the presence of Jeremy, his nephew, at his side.

"Hey buddy!" Eric gathered the boy into his arms.

"If there's a solar whatever, how will Santa get here? Doesn't solar mean sky?" Jeremy wondered, a worried expression on his face.

"Santa will get here, don't you worry." Calleigh explained. "See, nothing can stop Santa."

"Yeah, nothing stops Santa," Eric continued, "Not even snow storms. Or solar eclipses."

"I guess so." The boy reasoned content with their explanation. "Cause if Santa couldn't deliver the presents, what would he do with all those toys till next year?"

"Exactly." Calleigh smiled. Couple identification crisis adverted, for now. Eric took her hand in his and led her back into the living room. Once in the midst of the party, the two were separated. Isabella and Emilee stole Calleigh away. Eric silently wished her luck in fending off their investigation into the nature of Eric and Calleigh's relationship, questions, until that afternoon, Calleigh wouldn't have had any trouble fending off. But now, well, things were a _little _different. Eric was quickly claimed by his younger nieces and nephews as a participant in their game of cops and robbers. Ironically, he wound up being a robber.

"Can I steal him away from you Jeremy?" Calleigh asked the small boy, approaching Eric who was dejectedly tied up to a chair.

"As long as you make sure he doesn't escape! He's a robber, you know."

"I'll try my best." Calleigh promised as the boy ran off. "Looks like you lost." She giggled.

"It was an ambush." Eric defended himself. "There were like, twenty of them and one of me!"

"Poor Eric." Calleigh laughed kissing him lightly before untying him. "I was sent to tell you that dinner is starting in ten minutes. We are to round everyone up. I speak English and Spanish, but I'm fairly sure you have some relatives here who are speaking neither of those languages, so I came to enlist your help."

"Alright," Eric laughed. "Let's go." And that was how they spent their Christmas. It was a cheesy, huge Delko celebration and they wouldn't have wanted their first Christmas together to be any other way.

--&

"So what did you do this Christmas?" Valera asked. She and Calleigh, a tradition they had started a few years back, always met at the same bar every December 27th after work to discuss any exciting happenings over Christmas. Usually, it was Valera with the exciting stories to tell.

"You first." Calleigh smiled mischievously at Valera.

"Fine. But yours better be good." Valera paused to smile flirtatiously at the bartender who set their drinks down in front of them. "Because mine _sucked. _ Never again will I spend a Christmas with a man I have not been dating for over two months. See he seemed normal and all, but guess how I spent all of Christmas Eve?"

"I really don't think I could guess." Calleigh laughed.

"Apparently my boyfriend was the swing dancing champion of Florida." Valera groaned. "Swing dancing Calleigh. All Christmas Eve. There was no drinking, there was barley any kissing under mistletoe and by the time we were through dancing all evening, we were so tired that there wasn't even any sex." Calleigh burst out laughing. Only Valera.

"Poor you." Calleigh mocked.

"Well, at least I'm not Ryan. I went over to his apartment on my way home from the airport on Christmas; I flew home early after breaking up with Chris, to give Ryan his present because it was in my car. I'd meant to give it to him on my way _to _the airport but I forgot and you know what he was doing?"

"Do I want to?"

"He was just arriving home, tripod in hand."

"Tripod? I repeat, do I want to know what he was doing?" Calleigh giggled.

"He was out all night Cal. All night. Recording the solar eclipse. I didn't even know there _was _a solar eclipse. Leave it to Ryan."

"Only Ryan." Calleigh managed to get out between giggles.

"So how was your Christmas? You said you had a story." Valera pointed out.

"I hooked up with Eric." Calleigh said seriously, but then proceeded to once again erupt in giggles at the look on Valera's face.

"You're joking." Valera exclaimed, laughing herself. Upon seeing Calleigh's face go serious again, she abruptly stopped. "Oh, you're not! Calleigh that's... well, I would not go quite so far as saying wonderful because I'm pretty sure you would have had to hook up a month ago for me to win the pool, but it's great! I'm happy for you too. Not as happy as Cooper will be, though."

"The pool. I'm not even going to ask." Calleigh decided.

"So you win the best Christmas competition. Over me, anyways." Valera smiled.

"It was pretty amazing." Calleigh agreed.

"At least I've still got New Years." Valera grinned, and Calleigh laughed. While somehow over the course of the past three days it seemed almost everything in her life had changed, it seemed that some things never would.

--&

A/N: That was a little longer than I expected. When I started, it was Christmas, and now it's boxing day. Hah that's cool. Reviews are appreciated! MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!


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